The firm clarified that Carroll, who run Anglo American from March 2007 to April 2013, will chair Vedanta Resources Holdings Ltd, not the whole group, as that role is firmly held by chairman Anil Agarwal, who owns almost 80% of Vedanta Resources.

The 58-year-old became the first woman to ever lead Anglo. Not other female has held that position at the company ever since.

She comes back to the mining industry at one of the worst times imaginable, with companies across the globe feeling the pinch of an ongoing rout in commodity prices.